It’s Time to End the Trend of Over the Top Gender Reveals

Whatever happened to a simple cake that was blue or pink on the inside? It's been a few years since gender reveals became popular in the US, and as we usually do, we have to make every one bigger and better than the last. I can't remember a time when I was younger that people would make such a huge deal out of the sex of a baby, I remember there were parents who preferred to not know the sex of the child before he or she was born. Those were the days when parents wanted to be surprised when the baby was born, and get that first initial reaction to seeing their son or daughter for the first time. Now, parents are finding out the sex of their child sooner than ever before, and instead of finding out and continuing on with their baby planning, parents are throwing massive parties to celebrate the sex of their child.

At first, this seems like a fine plan, any reason to have a party I'm in, but gender reveals have become downright dangerous. We've seen people use animals (like the couple who used a hippo at a zoo for their gender reveal), planes (like this Texas couple), and even one couple that made a short sci-fi film to announce their baby's gender. Sure, these ideas and others are a little ridiculous but now, gender reveals have become criminal and in some cases deadly. Back in September, a gender reveal in Arizona caused the sawmill fire, and the parents were left with a whopping $8 million dollar bill and in July a Australian gender reveal celebration led to a car exploding. Sadly, in October of last year, a gender reveal turned deadly when a woman was hit by shrapnel from an explosion. A "bomb" was supposed to reveal the baby's sex with pink or blue smoke but instead threw metal scraps through the air that killed the grandmother.

After all these incidents, and probably more we don't know about, why do we continue to make gender reveals a thing? Is it really that important to celebrate if you're having a boy or girl? Does it even matter? I mean, yes, it does to the parents who will be decorating the baby's room, and to the family and friends buying gifts, but you don't need a party for that. Find out the sex of the baby then send that out on a party invitation. It can say "Hey, we're having a girl! So bring pink-colored snacks and pink booze for the people who can drink. Shoot, put some pink tissue on the keg just to make it festive." Then have the party, since we all know that's what's really important here. Gender reveals, go away and leave what's left of our national forests in one piece.